We find it reassuring that US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson met recently with Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to discuss plans for defense cooperation.
The plans also covered new joint patrols in the West Philippine Sea, scene of many harassment by Chinese vessels against Filipino fishermen and Filipino ships on humanitarian resupply missions.
While Carlson gave no details on discussions of future joint patrols, AFP chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. said the joint patrols were necessary to better enforce a rules-based international order.
Also recently retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who was part of the legal team that won against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016, also agreed the joint patrols should continue.
“We should have a series of joint patrols every year especially because we will be sending our service ship and drilling ship to Reed Bank, and when we send our service ship and drill ship there should be a joint patrol just in case the Chinese Coast Guard will try to shoo away our service ship and drill ship,” he said.
Carpio renewed his call for the government to begin oil exploration at Reed Bank, which is said to be rich in oil and gas deposits, to stave off possible devastating effects on the economy of rising energy costs and drying up of natural gas in Malampaya.
Also called Recto Bank, the Reed Bank reportedly holds the most oil and gas reserves in the West Philippine Sea.
The 2016 arbitral ruling declared it as part of Manila’s 200-nautical mile EEZ, meaning the Philippines has the sole right to exploit resources in the area although China understandably refused to recogize the arbitral ruling.
“We don’t need China to recognize our EEZ. As long as we get our natural resources in our EEZ, then we are winning,” Carpio said.
The first Philippine-US joint patrol was done in November 2023 at the West Philippine Sea and other areas of the ocean near Taiwan that were within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone.
China protested these patrols claiming that it interfered with existing negotiations with other countries regarding the South China Sea.
“Certainly, this coming year, we expect both of our militaries to continue to cooperate and to exercise and to do whatever it takes both bilaterally, multilaterally to ensure the safety of our peoples,” said Carlson.
These developments coincide with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s statement the Philippines needs a “paradigm shift” in dealing with China’s increasing aggression in the West Philippine Sea as Manila’s diplomatic protests are going “in a poor direction.”
While diplomatic protests indeed preserve the country’s legal rights, these are not enough to ensure the Philippines will have access to its natural resources, and the country needs to secure the area to establish its rights.